Two Spoons
by BecauseSheCan
Summary: Edward dated Bella's older sister in HS. Years later E & B meet again... Fluff BxE AH Oneshot


**This is in reply to the prompt made by Famously so from the Forks High School Challenge on Live Journal. I just hope that I did it justice.**

Prompt: Edward dated Bella's (older?) sister in HS. Years later E & B meet again...

Characters: Edward x Bella

World: AH

Words: 5,481

* * *

_It's a mystery of human chemistry, and I don't understand it. Some people, as far as your senses are concerned, just... feel like home." -High Fidelity_

*~*~*~*

Saturday nights are the worst night of the week. At least on Friday nights and I can tell myself I am too tired from work to go out. On Sunday nights I say that I want to be awake and ready for work. But Saturday nights I have no reason not to be busy. All week long I avoid doing normal chores so that I will be busy and run around and maybe not even notice the complete and utter lack of life in my life but it is never enough. I finish too easily, too quickly and suddenly it is nine o'clock on a Saturday and I am home alone once again in my apartment fighting the urge to go and treat myself with ice cream for the two hours I managed to spend at the gym this morning and rent the latest new release that seems semi-interesting.

I turn on my computer and check my e-mail. I refresh every few seconds thinking that maybe some how someone outside of my normal realm of existence remembers me and wants to talk and maybe I would talk back. Well, at least that's what I tell myself, if that was to happen I would probably log off after my heart sped up because I have lived in this quasi-isolation so long I forgot how to deal with people I actually enjoy.

In a last ditch desperate attempt to avoid the supermarket I hit refresh again: and yes there is mail! There is an e-mail containing a picture of my sister with her husband and son, looking happy and perfect with big old smiles on their faces. The mischief in my nephew's eyes makes me smile and feel a little daring. Screw the calories I tell myself, I go to the gym every damn day why shouldn't I have my Saturday night indulgence? With his little face egging me on I grab my keys and lock the door to get myself a treat.

*~*~*~*

As soon as I walk in to the grocery store I remember why I don't like doing this. Why I avoid the store on Saturday's, it's like I might as well be wearing red letters on my shirt. "Yes, single okay; all of you happy little old couples who have spent your entire life together, I am single and do you want to know why I am single? Do you? It is because I spend every day of my life with you, the dredge of the earth and the lunatics. I waste my life away where my mother and my grandmother wasted their life away. The IRS. You all know me, don't look at me with your sweet old eyes and try to tell me that I am such a pretty girl why don't I have a man of my own? I don't have a man of my own because there are no men in my life anywhere. Only crazy old ladies who read romance novels instead of doing their fucking job and that is all I have to look forward too. So don't look at me like that." I shout out loud and point to all the couples staring at me and the poor high school kids who are unlucky enough to spend their nights here and defiantly put the carton of archer farms ice-cream into my basket and walk out of the aisle. I feel alive, I feel proud finally I cracked and being crazy has never felt so good, until my face meets a wall and I fall on my ass.

"Ouch."

"Sorry, you probably didn't see me after doing your victory dance." I know that voice. I know it but from where. I am almost scared to look because the voice is strong and rich and has the most delicious texture and if the face matches the voice I just did the most embarrassing thing in the world in front of the most handsome man I have ever met. "You know I agree with you, those old broads had it coming to them, I mean they look all nice and sweet sure but they probably have dastardly plans to fix you up with their grandson who plays dungeons in dragons with his friends in the basement and debates the merits between The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars." I laugh along with him but I still don't look up. "You need a hand?" He asks and not taking his hand might be the rudest thing I do in my life so I accept and I look at him and half way between sitting and standing my brain yells at me that this gorgeous man was once the boy Edward Cullen who you crushed on for years and I let go of his hand only to fall back on the floor again, except this time I am not so graceful and I tip back and hit my head rather hard.

Just great.

I close my eyes and count to ten but when I open them again he is still there. He is still Edward Cullen and he is staring at me with his hand outstretched. "You okay there? Sorry I thought you were up already must have let go." _He doesn't know who I am_. I grab his hand and let him pull me up. Is it pathetic that my heart speeds up when I feel the calluses on his hand?

"Thanks," I say, offer a quick smile, then turn and walk away from him as fast as possible. It is rude especially after he stayed and helped me twice, plus he is nice and hot and the thirteen year old inside of me is still in love with him but I panicked. This is why I am sitting alone eating ice-cream on a Saturday night, I do not know how to interact with normal people. It is not until I am at the end of the aisle that I remember I was actually in the store shopping. Shopping for pathetic Saturday night things and the contents of my basket are still scattered back there by Edward, where he can see those things. Shit.

I turn back around and when I do I nearly collide into him again.

"We need to stop meeting like this," He laughs and holds up my basket. "I think you forgot these."

"Thanks Edward." The second I say it I know the mistake I made. Now I am some random creepy stalker girl, now I have to explain to him how I know him, now I can't be random embarrassing klutzy girl now we have a history and I have to stay here rambling to him and be polite. Fuck.

"You're welcome." His eyes kind of do a weird squinty thing and he just kind of stares there.

"You dated my sister." Smooth Bella, he is actually backing away from you at this point. "That's how I knew your name, you dated my sister back in middle school, well middle school for me high school for you. Anyway yeah I just thought I should clear that up."

And once more I am walking away from him, embarrassed, if one good thing has come from my encounter with Edward Cullen I know I will never come here on a Saturday night again.

Or so I thought.

I raced through the remaining aisles and in my embarrassment I decided I deserved it all and got one of those microwavable cake things, ice cream on top of a warm brownie with caramel, hell yes. I was cheering myself on at being so indulgent until about two seconds ago when a certain someone puts their groceries on the conveyor belt right next to mine. A certain someone I was sure I would never see again. He doesn't say a word to me and I am too scared of being rude again to resort to my normal avoidance tactics and hide my face in a trashy magazine, so I wait for him to say something.

He doesn't.

So I wait for the clerk to scan all my groceries and could she go any slower? She is moving in slow motion and I might be paranoid but I think she is deliberately holding up all the damn items so that Edward can see what I am buying to clog up my arteries. I tap my foot, I exhale, my fingers are almost tearing apart the hem on my sleeve then finally, and fucking finally she gives me my goddamn total. I open my wallet grab the cash, shove it at her and bag up my own groceries while she is figuring out how to open the damn drawer for change.

She gives it to me and I take the bags and run. Well I don't exactly run, but I walk fast determined to get out until I am distracted by the redbox machine. Movies, new movies that I can rent for a dollar a day; I may have never wanted to see The Prince and Me: The Elephant but for only a dollar it seems like a good deal. Just as I am about to swipe my credit card I see Edward's reflection in the scream and I jump back into his arms.

"You just can't stop touching me can you, Bella Swan."

"You looked at my license asshole." I turn around and smack him, How have I gotten so comfortable with him.

"Of course not, I knew you from the second I saw you turn red. How could I forget Rosie's little sister?" He smiles that smile everyone gets when they think of Rose.

"Bella" I say maybe a bit too harshly.

"Right Bella, well look at you all grown up."

"Six years does that to a girl."

He takes my hand and turns me around, and for some stupid reason I don't object to being observed like a piece of meat. It might have a little something to do with the fact that I want to sit on his face. "Right, how's your sister?"

"Good." Fucking Rose, always Rose with her pretty blonde hair, tall long body and blue eyes she can bat at everyone. I love my sister but we are the classic notion of darkness and light, her blond hair falls in beautiful waves mine in a flat curtain, hers big blue eyes, my shit brown ones, her long legs, if you looked at me from the waist down I'd look like a midget.

"Think she'd fancy a reunion?" And there it is that look back in his eyes and I mean I know what I was just thinking but that was when I was comparing myself to the beautiful and wonderful Rose. On my own I'm not half bad, I mean I don't have the longest legs in the world but I have a long stomach that curves in, and I don't have voluptuous curves but it is pretty damn apparent that I am a female. My face is pretty; I think that was one of the only complements I have ever received. Where Rose's face is soft and innocent mine is odd, with sharp angles a lip that's a little too large, but somehow it works, and it suits me and my face makes me want people to look at it more rather than the nothing extraordinary face of Rosalie.

"Well Edward, I think she might fancy a reunion but her husband might not."

"Oh." Bonus points for articulation.

"Yeah," I say and nod my head once, twice, and he is still looking at his feet so I suppose this short lived reunion is over. "It was nice seeing you but I need to go, you know my ice-cream is melting." I pull my hand back from his, how did I not realize I was still holding his hand, and turn away.

I make it through the door before I start flexing my hand, something about my hand just doesn't feel right without his hand holding it. I mean I know I am being insane and silly but still it feels empty. When I make it past the first row of cars I turn back around. The entire night has been a continuous loop of me thinking I am leaving him only to run into him again, but maybe this time is different. Maybe this time I finally was able to push him away and the hint got through his thick skull, only this time I think I wanted him to come after me. I think men are right and we women are all batshit crazy. I mean I certainly look crazy standing in the middle of the parking lot with a melting carton of ice cream looking back and forth unable to make a decision.

I should go.

I mean my ice cream really is melting, and he probably came outside already and I am being an idiot which seems to be the theme of the night. Okay, no Edward, no being a stupid thirteen year old girl you Bella Swan are a strong successful independent woman. Yes you might not be living your dream but you are living on your own, supporting yourself and making it through every day. So what if you are not married or travelling the world as a documentary filmmaker, you have a good life better than plenty of people out there. You are happy.

By the time I get to my big red truck I am okay with the way the night has turned out and looking forward to eating my soupy ice cream. Until I see Edward Cullen sitting in my backseat holding up two spoons asking me if I have anyone to eat the ice cream with; then I am fucking ecstatic.

"And what if I did?" I ask. It is obvious I don't because even as I ask the question I am hopping into the bed of the truck and taking the ice cream out of my bag.

"Then I wouldn't have any use for these." He holds up two spoons and a bunch of napkins, "this car brings back memories."

"Of Rose constantly bitching you out."

"More like you calling me for a flat tire." I always did like a man who could shoot it back at me.

"Yeah well I figured out how to do that myself now."

"I kind of think you always knew." I really didn't but I totally would have faked it to make him come around.

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"No, I am just saying you were a cute kid." He answers as I dip my spoon in and bring the delicious delectable amazing taste of caramel gelato to my mouth. I might even moan a little.

"This is exactly what I need." Edward still hasn't taken a bite yet and he is just staring at my newly empty spoon, his eyes are looking kind of odd. "Edward you okay?" He looks at my spoon, then me, then my spoon again and shakes his head. My ego seriously just skyrockets in that one second, and I am smiling like a damn fool as I pass the ice cream to him.

"So what do you do?" He asks me as he takes his first bite and fuck it if karma doesn't bite me in the ass. Even without my dramatic moaning he manages to make me want him more than the ice cream and trust me the ice-cream is really fucking good.

"I work at the IRS."

"Oh. Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you work there?"

"What is so wrong with working there?"

"Nothing," he says in the okay you are being crazy and I am going to smile at you because that's what you do to crazy people look. Or maybe I am reading too much into it, but I doubt it, Edward Cullen is a man with many faces. The only problem with this face is that it makes me want to defend myself and on principle I have decided not to explain myself to him because I do not need to. Imagine a game of tug of war with the same exact person on each side that is me.

And then he takes another spoonful of the caramel gelato and he closes his eyes and makes that fucking blissful face and I can't blame him because it is just so good but it breaks me resolve and suddenly I am answering him. "Come on, everyone who didn't go to college ends up there. It's like a black hole for the uneducated and the crazies."

"So you're crazy?" He asks breaking the potential woe-is me endless pool of self pity I have a tendency to dive into.

"Har har," I grab the tub back from him, "What about you college boy?"

"Nothing interesting," he shrugs.

"Oh and the IRS is the most interesting place on the planet."

"I'd assume so with all the crazies."

"Yeah well, only on a full moon." I say and he laughs. I miss his laugh so much but it sounds different now. Once upon a time it made me blush and giggle. Now it still makes me blush but only because I understand what the gravel in his voice makes me want to do, how I want to do him.

"Wouldn't it be only under a full moon? I mean you are not actually on the moon right?"

"You're really not going to tell me what you do?"

"I'm a pharmacist." He says it as if it's a death sentence.

"Oh. That's not bad."

"Not good either." And here is a side of Edward Cullen I have never seen before, granted it probably wasn't present in the sixteen year old Edward and if it was the thirteen year old Bella would have never noticed but I notice now and all I want to do is give him a hug. Like not even a hug that leads to dry-humping which leads to me, just a simple hug. He is so hard on himself, I mean I give myself shit all the time but not like this, not seriously.

"Well I wasn't expecting you to be a rocket scientist or anything."

"You know what Bella Swan?"

"No, what?"

"You're kind of perfect."

"What?"

"Perfect. I mean I can't remember the last time I ever had this much fun or was so relaxed and what are we doing, just sitting on the cold bed of your truck eating ice cream." He flourishes his last statement by sticking a spoonful in his mouth. "And while this ice cream is pretty good, I think it might be you that is making me feel so relaxed."

Great just what every girl wants to hear, that she makes the guy she wants to fuck seven ways to Sunday relax. I mean I AM A CATCH, he should be all jumpy and nervous and want to impress me but no I make him feel good. I snatch the gelato from him and shove a spoonful in my mouth, finally returning to the original goal of the night: Bella eating her feelings.

He leans back and we share the rest of the carton as he goes on and on about how nice it is to see me again. I answer every few seconds with appropriate responses, letting my mouth answer before my brain can think but he hasn't seemed too offended at any of the answers I give back. Which makes me like him all the more. I was always called heartless because Renee and Rosalie were so incredibly over the top emotional. Rosalie laughed and cried; but she wasn't a pushover. No, she was always very clear about what she expected of people and how she wanted to be treated, but she was generous, and she gave all of herself to anyone and would do favors for everyone.

I have never been that person. I was never expected to be that person. If someone wanted straight answers they came to me. I never thought more about the person than the truth. I mean I'm not heartless, I never sought out to hurt anyone but I never lied to anyone. I always thought lies were selfish. I told the truth, I still do. I am levelheaded for the most part, I don't cry unless something shakes my soul and I don't tell people how to treat me. I just let things happen and normally I am proud of myself. And yet, right now I wish I was more like Rose, because if Rose were here the gelato would be long forgotten and they would be racing off to the nearest room to fuck like rabbits. Maybe they wouldn't even wait to get a room.

I hear the tell-tale sound of my spoon stabbing the cardboard container and fuck me if the two of us haven't sat here talking about absolutely nothing long enough to finish off the ice cream.

"Bella? Bells you there?" Edward waves a spoon in front of my face.

"Yeah sorry." I sound so mean, so caustic and even to my own ears, so I push out my bottom lip and offer the empty carton to him. "No more ice cream."He laughs and doesn't question my momentary mood swings, and he shouldn't do that because that is making him perfect in my eyes at a point when I thought he couldn't even get any more perfect.

"Oh wow, I didn't realize we were out here that long." He smiles, and his eyes crinkle a little and my heart beats a little faster. Bella he is just relaxed with you, he doesn't feel the same way, don't give in.

"Yeah, time goes fast when you're _relaxed."_

"Oh." He laughs again, and begins collecting the spoon and carton and random napkins that have scattered around the bed.

"What?" What did I do? What did say? What did you want? I will be so pissed if this entire evening was just a way for him to get some free gelato.

"Nothing." He puts the bag in the corner and stretches out in the back of the bed. He turns his head and motions for me to lie down next to him. The truck isn't that wide and my side is pressed against his. I never knew a side of your body could feel alive before. I mean I have fucked guys, and I have been involved in attempts at making love which turned out to just be slow fucking which bored the shit out of me and I found myself making to-do lists in my head; but now just laying next to him I feel so much more than I ever have before. I look up at him, he smiles and I feel his arm wrap around me pulling closer. As soon as he looks up to the moonless night sky I quickly bury my head in his shirt and he smells good. I have no idea what it is since I don't make it a habit to memorize male colognes but maybe I should start because then I can go out and purchase this smell and inhale it every day. It is just so good. "It is so peaceful here." He says, and I can't help but agree. The grocery store is quiet and besides the occasional sound of a car opening and starting I almost forget there is anyone else out here. "You know I think I might even fall asleep."

"Wonderful, "I mutter and try to pull away from him as soon as the words leave his mouth but he won't let me. He actually pulls me closer. He has already made it perfectly clear that whatever is going on in my twisted brain is a one-sided affair and he doesn't feel that way. I don't need the constant reminders. Or the mixed signals; because holding me that close, making me smile, looking at me the way I sometimes thinks he does tells me that he is not bored, not sleepy, not friendly despite what his words say. Like right now, I am pressed up right against him, and instead of letting me leave he turns towards me, his head over my own, not quite in my personal space but almost pushing the boundary. I can feel his warm breath hit my cheek, and see the golden ring around the black of his eye. "You know I kind of liked being this relaxed. It lets me think about things I shouldn't be thinking about."

"Like what?" I squeak out. My mouth is dry, because he is making me think things that I shouldn't be thinking about and if there is a god in this fucked up world our two things will be exactly the same. He grins and moves his face a little closer to mine. I swallow and my tongue darts out to lick my lips as I wait for him to answer. I curse myself as I realize that my little moment there has distracted him and now his eyes are focused solely on my lips so I repeat the question.

"Like my ex-girlfriends little sister. Like how soft her skin might be. Like what she might taste like if I were to kiss her. Like how her hands would feel on my skin."

Oh.

"And you like these kind of thoughts?"

"I don't mind them." His face is so close; a fraction of an inch more and our lips would touch. I can finally kiss the man I have wanted forever. Who actually gets this chance?

"Really?" I whisper, he kind of chuckles kind of laughs, he makes some sound of amusement and it really doesn't matter because before I can decide what to call that sound his lips brush softly over mine. The kiss is tentative, slow, and perfect. It is the kind of kiss that acknowledges we have forever to go deeper and faster, this kiss right here acknowledges the future.

Of course after that one kiss, another follows, then another, each perfect in their own little way. I don't want to stop kissing him but my body is staging a mutiny against me. I guess even though my conscious brain is too overloaded with the sensations of Edward Cullen's lips against my own the rest of my body is actually still reacting to the environment around us. I mean it is still early April and we have been sitting in the back of my truck eating ice cream for over an hour and now we are lying on said cold metal tangled in each other's arms. So I start shivering, which could be passed off as desire, but when my teeth start clattering and I almost bite down on his tongue I think there might be a slight change in the mood.

Edward draws back so slightly and rests his thumb on my lower lip. "You're shivering."

"It was the ice cream," I say and kind of push forward again, physical stimuli be damned all I need right now is his lips back against my own.

I think he might be considering it for one second, but then he rests his forehead against mine and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear and whispers, "I should probably get you home."

"And where is home Mr. Cullen?"

"Oh, yeah," he smiles "you probably don't live at home anymore."

"No I haven't lived at my mom's house for quite a while but I do have a home of my own."

"Right. I didn't mean to imply that you..." I laugh a little because I'm not sure if I have ever seen Edward Cullen at a loss for words before. Including that time when Rose, Jasper and me got him high for the first time after Jasper got the winning home run in his first ever varsity game. I should help him out but I am cold and happy which basically means I am doing all I can to hold in the fit of giggles that are threatening to burst out of my mouth as I watch him try so hard to recover the ground he has lost. "Can I drive you home?" He finally asks.

"Then what about…" I kind of just motion to the thing we are sitting on to help him remember that we are in my car. I would love nothing more than more Edward time but I don't have anyone to drive me back except Rose and I really don't want to explain how I managed to leave my car here.

"Oh." He looks so sad.

"Edward,"

"Hmm"

I lean forward and press my lips once more against his, a sweet brief promise to both myself and him that this could be more, that I want more, I want him, another date, then another, and another until the day comes when I no longer look forward to kissing him good morning and good night. "You think we can get another carton tomorrow?"

"Are you asking me out?" The corner of his mouth lifts up and I know this smile, I love this rare smile, this is his playful face.

"Maybe."

"Maybe, huh?" He lowers his hand down from my cheeks to my neck, down my arm and my breath hitches in anticipation and in an instant I am writhing under him laughing and squealing, pushing him away. God damn bastard is tickling me. I try and fight, I push, I cry out, I try and tickle him but nothing works until I am breathless and surrendering to him. "Okay, Okay I give."

"Not the right answer." He continues his heinous ministrations.

"Edward Anthony Masen will you please go out with me?" I shout at the top of my lungs. An older woman in the parking lot turns to us and gives a sour face before making her way to her car and we break out in giggles.

"Well since you asked so nicely, I would love to. Bella Swan would you do the honor of bumping phones with me?" He holds up his iphone and I reach to the corner where I dropped my bag and we tap our phones against each other, thus exchanging contact info, ah the joy of modern technology. He grabs the garbage bag and his one little bag he came out of the store with before hoping down to the pavement. Solid ground. And I know it seems silly but for a second I hold my breath and think that maybe outside of the back of my truck the little bubble we created around ourselves won't last, but then he turns to me and holds his hand out to help me down and I know I am safe with him right now.

We both look down to our joined hands, then without a word he lets go and starts walking away with a half-smile on his face. What the hell does that mean? A half fucking smile. But the second before I can go into full panic mode he turns around and calls out that he will call me tomorrow. My face breaks out into the most shit eating grin in the world and I might do a little happy dance as I climb into the driver's seat and start the car. I know one thing for sure at that moment: I fucking love Saturday night grocery shopping.


End file.
